Mangroves: Scratch & 3-D Print Combo

    Mangrove trees for my Surviving 'Nam scenario that is set in the Mekong Delta

One of the scenarios ("A Muddy Slog") in my Surviving 'Nam Vietnam rules takes place in the Mekong Delta. It was inspired by a Vietnam Veteran's account of a series of missions in this damp and uncomfortable area. In my take on his experiences, the entire battlefield is flooded in the scenario. The main channel of a Mekong tributary runs down the center, and everyone is knee deep in water. The players must search four areas of higher ground for a Viet Cong encampment (just like in the account I read).

    Trees are 3-D printed and painted, the vegetation for the leaves is from craft store plastic plants

Luckily, I have a mat that I can use for the muddy, greenish-brown river surface. However, I don't have any mangrove trees. So, I asked my friend, and usual Sunday Night gaming host Mike W (who'd recently purchased a Bamboo 3-D printer), to create some for me. He searched online and found some STLs and printed up a handful to see if they would work. They were various shapes and sizes, mostly single trees, but one with two trees on one base. They looked great except they had no vegetation on them -- just bare roots, trunk, and branches. So, what to do for the vegetation?

    The plastic plant that I eventually chose after much searching to be the leaves of my mangrove trees

I considered two main options. One that I tried and gave up on early was clump foliage from Woodland Scenics. It was a mess and stuck poorly. No way I was going to do that! The other choice was to find plastic vegetation at the local craft stores and attach it to the various limbs of the trees. I made a few trips to Michaels and Hobby Lobby, finally settling upon one style of plastic plant. It had the smallest and most correct shape of "leaves" -- though perhaps a bit bulbous. The plant I purchased looks a bit like a greenish-white hydrangea. Each round sphere was composed of many tiny plastic pieces that could be pulled apart and then trimmed to create little clumps of the leaves. One $3 piece of plastic vegetation created about 150 or so leaf clusters that I could use. 

    Tiny clusters of vegetation pulled off of the plastic plant, trimmed & ready for painting

The plastic would need to be colored, though, as it faded in parts from light green to white. First, I tried soaking a half dozen of the clumps in watered-down green paint for several hours. Nope -- the surface didn't soak up any of the color! So, I would have to hand-paint the leaves. I wrapped the stem of each little clump in poster putty so that it would stand upright on my cutting board that I use as a painting surface. First, I did a broad wet brush of the little clumps with a craft paint called -- who'd believe it? -- Leaf Green. Next, I dry brushed them a very light green for highlights. I would end up using less than two of the sphere clumps for my first test batch of five mangrove tree bases.

    Clusters of leaves after they've had their base coating of Leaf Green craft paint

Mike printed the trees in black filament, at my request. Nevertheless, I spray painted them with Krylon Fusion Acrylic Black Paint, After they dried, I brushed on a 50/50 water and acrylic black paint mixture to fully coat each branch and root in black paint. Once dry, it was time for my usual wet brush of Camo Brown on them, followed by a dry brush of tan. I left most of the places between the roots black, as I was still thinking about what to do down there.  

    This 3-D print had two trunks with their roots joined together at the base

Now came the tricky part! With my pin vice, I drilled holes at various places in the branches. Then, I took a clump of leaves and whittled down the stem enough with an X-acto knife so it would slide into the hole created by the drill bit. This was a learning process, and my later stems fit much better fits than my early attempts. Once a hole was drilled, I would trim down the stem of a piece and place a drop a blog of super-glue over the hole and surrounding branch area. I inserted the stem into the hole, holding it for about 30 seconds. In the beginning, half or less stayed in place, it seemed. There was a lot of cursing at that point, but I slowly got better at it. By the end, only an occasional cluster would not stay in place and have to be re-glued. It was time consuming attaching one plastic clump of leaves at a time to each mangrove tree, but I liked how the trees were starting to look.

    Trunks & branches of all five mangroves are different, which I think adds to the look on the tabletop

The smallest of the mangrove trees had upper branches too thin to pierce with a pin vice. So, instead I slopped super glue on a group of facing twigs and forced one of the clusters down onto it. I hoped the tension of the branches would initially hold the leaves in place, and then the superglue would take over and more permanently bond it. It seemed to work well. The lower trunk of it was wide enough to drill holes in and attach clumps the usual way. In the beginning, I was despairing of the time it would take to do just a single tree. However, as I got better, they proceeded much more quickly. Now, I'm glad I did them this way. Just to be on the safe side, I also painted my 50/50 mix of earth brown paint and white glue I used for bases on the stems and branches where they connected to give an extra adhesion. It wasn't as time consuming as I thought it would be, and will hopefully -- once clear coated -- prevent me from losing any bunches of leaves in handling the trees during the game. 

    I was happy with this mix of 3-D printing & scratch-building to create my 1st batch of mangroves

Next: what to do with the black areas inside the root tangles? I decided to paint most of them to match the dull greenish-brown mat that I will be using for the Muddy Slog scenario. I added smaller dots of a lighter green to those areas to simulate bright reflected sunshine on the surface of the water, too. Once that was done and dry, I coated everything but the leaves with my brown vehicle wash. This would give a smoother progression of brown shading to the wood while also dulling down the water between the roots even more. Finally, I felt the root areas could use a three dimensional aspect to them. So, I added bits of clump foliage in and amongst the roots. Although the clump foliage has a completely different look and texture, I liked how it added to the verdant nature of a cluster of mangroves. So, what do you think? Do these look enough like mangrove trees to pass on the tabletop? Obviously, I will need more of them. However, I wanted to complete these five first so that I knew which size and shape to request. 

    My friend Pete in UK (play tester for Surviving 'Nam) created these goods baskets for me

One final bit of scatter on this post is something that I didn't do at all! My friend from the UK, Pete Smith, sent these baskets of goods to me as thanks for his copy of Surviving 'Nam rules. He and his gaming mates Bob and David were play testers for the rules and contributed so much to their production that I wanted to give them their own copies. I had a friend visiting the UK and going to the same convention that they would be attending, so had him hand-carry their copies. Much to my surprise, Pete included a return gift -- these various, scratch-built baskets of goods. They are very cool and saw use in a recent game. Thanks, Pete! You didn't have to do that, but know they will indeed get used regularly!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 234
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 224

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 22
• Terrain painted in 2026: 44

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 50
• Scatter painted in 2026: 75